Thursday, January 22, 2009

Every artist starts somewhere

B has been my daily pal. When I work on the computer, she is at my side. When I do dishes, she stands at the sink and “cleans” the dishes. When I am doing laundry, she has to be there stuffing it in the washer. She sits at my feet while I sew and urges me to play with her on the swings.

So today, while doing laundry, with her by my side, she started talking to me about the flowers on the wall. Years ago when we moved into this house, my sister and I went a little nuts in the laundry room – as only sisters can do. It is one of my favorite memories with her even if a lot of the paint ended up on my cloths and in my hair. This was the result… a whole little room of daisies.


That was almost 8 years ago and time has taken it’s toll. There are a lot of places that need touched up, so much so that the whole room is going to have to be repainted. But I haven’t wanted to do it because of the memories associated with the room.

I told B that Aunt L helped me paint them. I said Aunt L drew those on the wall for mommy.

Flash forward a few hours…

Tonight, the kids spontaneously sat down to watch Toy Story on that retro machine people used to call a VCR. They were so content looking and settled, I thought I would leave them there while I caught up on something I couldn’t do with B by my side. Ironing.

After about 20 minutes, B came to me with this…

“Here mommy, I give this to you.”

Oh, no!

Expecting the worst, I asked her to show me what she drew on.

“Ok, come show me,” she said while she took me around the house.


There was Hubby’s office desk…


The fish tank…


And of course, the laundry room.


Notice the careful detail in the flowers… just like Aunt L!


Of course it was on her dress, face and hands. But thankfully nothing else. And unbelievably enough, it came off the fish tank and hubby’s desk.


I think I will leave her mark on my laundry wall for a little longer, she worked so hard!

Oh boy, this could have been SO much worse... thank goodness it wasn't!

11 comments:

Natalie said...

Wow! You have such a great attitude about the "artwork." These pictures are great!

in time out said...

seriously so cute. i think that when you repaint you MUST have some pictures of this artwork to frame and hang. you will be so glad you did. SOOOO take lots of photos of the evidence...hmmm. someones blog, i think it is hudson headlines says that someday the little things in life we will realize are the big things. love your blog. happy day!

in time out said...

and i so love real moms, real life...and your photo. can I put you on my blog roll?

S'mee said...

I'm so glad you handled this the way you did. I, on the other hand flipped when my niece took a red crayon to the $17.00 per roll wallpaper (hugely expensive for that day and age) in our entryway, smiled at me and defiantly dug the crayon in harder when I told her not to. She was seven and understood well what and why I asked her not to draw on the walls. I was not a happy camper.

In the long run, I remember the red marks that never came of the newly hung wall paper, and I never forgot the harshness of my feelings that day towards my niece. ugh. A mess all around.

I wish this post had been somewhere I could have read it waaaaay back then.

Ed said...

You are right, it could have been worse. I don't know if I would have been so calm about it though!! Glad it came off things fairly easily!

Melissa said...

This will probably be one of those things that in time you look back and laugh at:) Glad you could get most of it off. We had a similar experience years ago and I have to say that I didn't handle it as well as you did:) We only allow washable markers now:)
Love the photo of your daughter in the laundry room......so cute!

That Girl said...

Been there, done that. Over and over again.

And over and over and over .....

Anonymous said...

I have an artist that did that for many years I feel your pain.. I hope I am not being irreverent, but at first, the picture of her, made me think of the Seinfeld when the boss, has ink on his lip and looks like hitler LOL

queenbee4 said...

you are my hero today. I'm not as calm as you. But it was so great that you were calm because she was showing you how much she loves you.

Laurie said...

She is soooooo freakin' adorable. That was fun painting that room. And now you have one more fun little memory to add to it. ;)

She looks so proud of herself too, like she just made the prettiest thing ever! Give her kisses for me.

Heidi said...

Wow...I can see we relate and a lot of levels...Thanks for sharing in my mess:)